Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987

The Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 sets the rules for four connected areas. It deals with access to official information held by local authorities, proper access by each person to official information relating to that person, public access to many local authority meetings, and the issue of land information memoranda.

The Act is built around the principle of availability. If information is official information under the Act, it should be made available unless there is good reason to withhold it. That principle matters for businesses because councils often hold the records, reports and decisions that affect property, projects, licences, compliance and local trading conditions.

For Parts 1 to 6, the Act applies to local authorities and public bodies named or specified in Schedule 1. For Parts 7 and 8, it applies to bodies named or specified in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2. The Act also extends to committees, subcommittees, standing committees, special committees, joint standing committees, joint special committees and committees of the whole local authority where the authority is empowered to appoint them.

That is important in practice because many decisions affecting businesses are made at committee level. A transport, planning, licensing or infrastructure issue may appear first in a committee agenda or report rather than in a full council meeting.

Official information means any information held by a local authority. The definition is broad. A document can be in any form and includes writing, recorded or stored information, labels and markings, books, maps, plans, graphs, drawings, photographs, film and other visual records.

Information held by an officer, employee or member in that capacity is treated as held by the local authority. Information held by an independent contractor engaged by the local authority in that capacity is also treated as held by the local authority. That can matter where a contractor manages inspections, infrastructure work, parking systems or project records for a council.

Businesses usually turn to this Act when a local authority decision starts affecting cost, timing or risk. You might need records behind a consent delay, a compliance issue, a rates dispute, a bylaw problem, a parking change, a licence condition or a local infrastructure project affecting access to your premises.

The Act is also useful in property transactions. A buyer, tenant, lender or developer may need a LIM, drainage information, hazard information, building-related entries or records showing whether council files match the actual use of the site.

Part 2 sets out the request process. It covers requests, assistance, transfer of requests, decisions on requests, extensions of time, access to documents, deletion of protected material from documents, refusal grounds, substantial collation or research, and the duty to consider consulting the requester in some cases before refusing under the substantial collation or research grounds.

For a business, the practical point is to make the request precise. Identify the property, project, meeting, consent number, date range or decision you are asking about. A narrow request is easier to process and more likely to produce the records you actually need.

Part 4 deals with access to personal information. The Act defines personal information as any official information held about an identifiable person. It also includes provisions on precautions, correction of information and reasons for refusal of requests for personal information.

For businesses, this can matter where a sole trader, director, guarantor, applicant or other identifiable person needs access to personal information held by a local authority in connection with a local authority process. The Act should be read carefully here, because it speaks in terms of personal information held about an identifiable person.

The Act does not require every record to be released. Section 6 sets out conclusive reasons for withholding where release would be likely to prejudice security or defence, international relations, the maintenance of the law including fair trial rights, or the safety of any person.

The Act also contains other withholding reasons and refusal mechanisms. It allows deletion of protected material from a document rather than refusing the whole document. It also deals with requests involving substantial collation or research, and requires the local authority to consider consulting the requester in the circumstances identified by the Act before refusing on those grounds.

Part 3 gives a right of access to internal rules affecting decisions and a right of access by a person to reasons for decisions affecting that person. These provisions can be especially useful where a business is trying to understand how a local authority reached a decision that affects a permit, property, access arrangement or compliance position.

If your business is challenging a practical outcome, do not focus only on the final letter or notice. The internal rules, staff reports and reasons may be just as important for understanding what happened and deciding what to do next.

Part 5 provides the review pathway for certain decisions. After investigating a complaint, the Ombudsman may report an opinion and reasons to the local authority and, subject to the Act, make recommendations. The complainant must also be given the recommendations, if any, and any other information the Ombudsman thinks proper.

The Act does not make every recommendation immediately binding. Instead, a public duty to observe the recommendation arises on the 21st working day after the recommendation is made, unless the local authority decides otherwise by resolution at a meeting before then and records that decision in writing.

Part 7 is the meetings part of the Act. Its purpose includes promoting the open and public transaction of business at meetings of local authorities. It covers public notification of meetings, availability of agendas and reports, admission of the public, exclusion of the public, maintenance of order, inspection or receipt of minutes, and public notification of resolutions at extraordinary meetings.

For businesses, this is often the quickest way to see what is coming. If a council is considering a local transport change, reserve use issue, infrastructure project, policy shift or other matter affecting your site or customers, the agenda and reports may show the proposal and staff advice before the meeting takes place.

Part 6A specifically provides for land information memoranda from territorial authorities. A person may apply to a territorial authority for the issue, within 10 working days, of a LIM relating to matters affecting land in the district. The application must be in writing and accompanied by the applicable charge.

This is the part of the Act many businesses will use in property due diligence. It is especially relevant for purchases, leases, development planning, lending and site risk checks.

This Act does not operate in isolation. Section 44 says Parts 1 to 5 do not authorise release if release would amount to contempt of court or of the House of Representatives. It also says those Parts do not override other enactments that require information to be made available, or other enactments and certain regulations that prohibit, restrict or regulate availability.

That means a business should always check whether another law also applies to the records or process in question. The answer may not sit in this Act alone.